


You Can Only Have so Much Fun at the Theatre

by wakeupthenightmare



Series: Of Sound Mind and Sure Madness [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Date Night, Declarations Of Love, Domestic, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Light Angst, Oral Sex, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Romance, Schmoop, Sexual Content, Smut, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Has Issues, Steve Rogers is Not a Virgin, fluff and sexy times, no sir definitely not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 10:24:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5824921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakeupthenightmare/pseuds/wakeupthenightmare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Casey get back from a night out at the theatre. Some light angst, then sexy times ensue.</p><p>Set after the events of 'These Passions' (but you don't have to read that for this to make sense), and after the events of The Avengers film.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Only Have so Much Fun at the Theatre

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: like I said, you don't have to have read 'These Passions' to read this series. You just need to know that Casey was brought into the Avengers' team for her heightened mental abilities, i.e. various telepathic skills, combat skills similar too though not as awesome as Natasha's, and slight telekinesis used for telekinetic shielding as well as moving things. Kind of like the Scarlet Witch, but blue instead of red in my mind, and more focused on the telepathic side than the Witch's badass ripping skills in Age of Ultron.  
> She was born with muted telepathic skills, put into an asylum by her family and eventually experimented on by Hydra who managed to increase her abilities, then regretted it when she used them to mind-fuck them and escape. This will probably be explored later on.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy.

 

Everything was dark in the house, just as they'd left it. Inside the only sound was the hum of the boiler as it attempted to heat the rooms and keep the November chill at bay. Casey's dog, Pepper- a small French Bulldog that Steve often poked fun of for his lazy habits- was asleep on the sofa (something Casey had tried in vain to stop him doing).

Lazy or not, he kept guard well, and when he heard laughing voices approach his ears pricked up, and his small body wiggled around until he could get his feet under him to jump off the sofa and wait in front of the door.

Steve muttered something just inaudible through the wood of the door that sent Casey into a fresh round of laughter, just as she managed to get the second lock done.

Pepper jumped up excitedly and yipped at the sight of his owner stumbling blindly into the darkened hall.

"There you are, did you keep watch for me?" Casey bent to pick up the small ball of fluff she called a guard dog and started scratching his belly. "Yeah, you're my number one guy, my little man, aren't you. Yes you _are._ " Casey's cooing over Pepper never ceased to both amaze and somewhat sicken Steve. Honestly, after fighting alongside Casey and seeing the damage she could inflict with single-minded determinedness, it was downright disturbing to hear baby/dog talk coming from her.

It also may have been a little endearing, but she didn't have to know that.

Steve frowned. "You know I think I should be insulted by the number one guy thing, but honestly if that's how you treat number one, I'll settle for second." he teased and dodged the hand Casey tried to swat him with.

"Shush you. You're just jealous, Rogers." Casey grinned and then went overboard with the baby-voice. "Jealous of my little prince, isn't he Pepper, yes he _is._ "

"I'm going to throw up." he groaned.

Casey just laughed and went to put Pepper back down on the sofa. Okay, so she's _tried_ to stop him sleeping there, but half-heartedly. He was too cute to deny.

"Seriously though," Steve shut the door and went back to their earlier conversation, "how did someone take a bunch of cats and come up with that baffling two-hour show? I'm not even sure I understood what was going on at all."

"Yes well that happens when you're not watching the stage and instead keep trying to distract _me_ with your stupid... voice and... wandering hands." she said lamely, attempting her usual sarcastic brand of insult but struggling thanks to the alcohol she'd consumed. She rolled her eyes at his amused grin and moved into the kitchen.

She went to the sink to get a glass of water, and Steve followed her, leaning slightly against the door frame. He took a minute to look at her, taking in all that he could in the better light rather than the darkness of the theatre.

Her dress was a deep blue colour that seemed to fade to black where any shadows fell on the fabric, tighter on the chest, but then loosely flowing downwards. With every step the slit on one side teased with a glimpse of her leg only to be hidden by the next wave of the silk.

Yep. Torture.

Steve wasted no time in telling her so. "Well, it's really your fault for looking like that. It's unfair to expect me to sit through two hours without being able to touch you." he put on his best innocent expression as she looked at him over her shoulder. She only snorted lightly, unconvinced and turned back around to refill the glass.

Meanwhile, Steve shrugged away from the door frame and slowly walked up to her, the ever-present shadow of the shy 40s-gentleman hesitating before putting his hands on her hips, standing close behind.

"You don't believe me?"

"I believe you're a Neanderthal who got bored watching people prance about as Cats." she teased, he could see her smirk in her reflection in the window and pinched her hip a little.

"Hey, I'm only human. I only have so much self-control." he grinned at her unimpressed look.

"You're right," she said sweetly, and Steve was immediately wary, "It's not your fault. I should help remove the temptation." she decided with a mock-serious expression and went to leave the kitchen.

He let out a sound of protest and gently gripped her arm, just above the elbow, and swung her back around into a tighter grip, locking his hands close together around her back, her body pressed against his.

"Problem?" she asked innocently.

"Definitely. I endured two hours of cat-people singing, you're not  going anywhere now."  his lower lip jutted out ever so slightly and Casey couldn't help but smile slightly at the boyish expression.

"Hmm, well, I did warn you when you said you wanted to catch up on the past years that not all of it was Die Hard and Mission Impossible. Theatre is an important part of artistic culture." Casey said mock-seriously and finally moved her hands from where they rested lightly on his arms up to the back of his neck.

"Well I think it's safe to say theatre isn't my scene so much."

"Huh... and there I always thought it could be a back-up job for you. After-all, the stage clearly loved you on your USO tour." she grinned wickedly as Steve groaned. It seems even 70 years wasn't enough for _that_ embarrassment to be forgotten. Casey laughed lightly then, delighted at the slight blush Steve could feel on his cheeks. Steve quickly forgot the teasing when he saw the open, happy expression that was fixed comfortably on Casey's face.

"Seriously though," Steve started, "you look beautiful tonight, even more than usual."

"Mmm." she hummed absently, deflecting with her next words. "You know, Tony may be an ass, but he definitely knows how to pick a suit. You clean up real good, Rogers. I'll have to send him a fruit basket or something."

"It is a nice suit... but for once I didn't feel like everyone was staring at _me._ I had to glare at this one guy for a good minute before he got the picture."

"Stop talking already." Casey breathed the words out and then leant up to meet Steve's lips in a heated kiss.

Steve knew she hated compliments, but he wouldn't ever stop trying to get her to understand just how good a person she was. He wouldn't stop trying to get her to see the best pieces of herself. And anyone who knew Steve knew that his stubbornness was unmatched... well, except by Casey herdelf maybe. For now though, he'd had enough of waiting, and so opened his mouth to trace Casey's tongue with his. As soon as her lips opened to his, it seemed as though a switch was flipped, and they couldn't get close enough.

He pressed her back against the counter and lifted her by the back of her thighs until she was sat on the edge of the wooden surface, a head higher than him. She pulled him closer, between her legs and gripped one broad shoulder in one hand, the nape of his neck in the other. Steve's hands meanwhile were wandering from her ankles upwards, the shave-smooth skin of her leg almost as soft to touch as the dress.

They pressed their bodies together as close as was possible, the v of her legs wrapped tightly round his waist. Steve's hand was finally feeling the skin of her leg that had been taunting him all night, pale, the flesh moulded perfectly against his fingers, as though his and only his were made to be there.

Of course as soon as he felt that subtle sensation of contentment began to settle warmly in his chest, the image of the guy he'd described earlier popped into his head; the way he'd done a double-take when Casey laughed at the bar from something Steve had said.

Steve could hardly blame the guy for looking, god knows Steve was sneaking glances at her all night, barely attempting to pretend to watch the show towards the end. But it was different- he was _allowed._ Casey was his, as much as he was hers: completely. Whether the guy had known that or not, he'd looked at her with open interest. Steve knew it was just an innocent look of appreciation. Hell he'd seen it enough times on Bucky's face when he spied a beautiful woman across the dance hall... Steve ignored the pang of pain he always felt at when he thought of his lost friend and tried to push the man from the theatre out of his damn head.

It shouldn't matter if anyone else wants her. Steve knew it shouldn't matter, because no matter what, she comes home with him. But even now when he can feel the warmth of her body against his own, he couldn't help but remember all the times his dates (always arranged by Bucky), ended up going off with men who'd been taller or stronger or more charming than Steve. And nearly all of them with that same look just before they came over to ask to steal her away for 'one dance'.

Steve growled a little, unable to shake the sudden, hot flash of possessiveness that struck him. He wrapped his arms closer around Casey, his broad chest encompassing her smaller body, as if he could hide her from everyone else, from the man's lustful gaze that still taunted Steve's mind.

Okay, so maybe he had some issues to work through... the shrinks SHIELD made him talk to seemed to expect it though. Had said he was bound to struggle every now and then.

A sharp intake of breath from Casey snapped him out of his reverie and he looked up in confusion at her slightly pinched expression. He realised his hands were gripping her harder than he knew was comfortable, edging into his enhanced strength territory. He looked in horror at his fingers splayed out on either side of her waist, dug in sharply, and yanked his hands away as if burned.

"Case, I'm- I- sorry." he turned away, furious at himself.

"Hey," she said softly and grabbed his arm just as he started to pull away, "it's okay, you didn't hurt me. I'm fine, see?" she held his jaw with her other hand when he still avoided her gaze and turned his face round so he had no choice but to meet her gaze. He saw no judgement or pain there. But he knew she could hide the latter extremely well.

He felt like an ass.

"I can see you throwing yourself to the flames. Stop it." she huffed and Steve couldn't help but smile grimly at her. She knew him too well, plus she always looks cute when she gets frustrated. She leaned forward then to gently press her lips to his again, for just a few seconds, before pulling away to wrap her arms around him and pull him insistently to her for a hug.

"You didn't hurt me." she repeated firmly. "Where were you, anyway?" she murmured against his ear, her cheek pressed to his.

Steve sighed as she ran her fingers through his hair, tugging a little at the ends when he still hesitated.

"Just... stuck in the past. Worrying about nothing." he mumbled, not wanting to reveal his petty insecurity.

"It's not nothing if it's troubling you. Was it...", she paused, "was it what I said about the USO tour? Because I know how much you hated it really, I didn't mean to drag you back to that when-"

"No! I mean- no." Steve shouted then winced when Casey startled, repeating it softer the second time. She still looked dubiously at him, and Steve couldn't bear the thought of her thinking she was in the wrong, so he took a deep breath and rushed the words out before he chickened out.

" _Everything'sgoingtoowell_."

Casey's eyebrows scrunched in confusion as she sifted through the words. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Her hand on his neck had stilled, but she began to press her fingers in once more, massaging gently.

"What... what exactly do you mean? Things since New York?"

Steve could see she still didn't get it. So he took another deep breath and forced himself to explain slower.

"Ever since... Ever since I got the serum... I, well, I've felt like all I do is lose people. Lose... everything." he swallowed past a lump in his throat and had to look away from Casey before he could carry on. "Dr Erskine. He was killed not two minutes after I got out of that tank. He was the only one who gave me a chance, who saw something in me no one else but Bucky ever had. And then Bucky too, he... I lived through the fear of possibly losing him, my best friend, hell my _brother_ , managed to get him back, only to lose him for real. For all of this... this... _strength_ ," Steve stared down at his hands, palms open, "I couldn't save him. Them. I failed them. And I can't take that back."

"Steve..." Casey whispered, an emotion Steve couldn't pin saturated her voice, and he wouldn't look up to her face to see what it was, not yet.

"Then I crashed that plane. And you know something? I felt kind of relieved. Only a little, but..." Steve heard a small, pained sound come from Casey, but she didn't interrupt, only tightened her hold on him.

"I felt relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with the serum without my family, without the one true friend I had who knew me before it all. I had Peggy, sure," Casey twitched minutely at her name but Steve couldn't read into it right now, "but I knew that whatever we'd talked about- dancing and dating, like we had a chance at a normal life, I knew it wouldn't happen. I'd be a lab rat the rest of my life. An outcast just like I was before, but in a way that was somehow worse. People pretended to care, women, men, all so they could get something from me. I couldn't deal with that."

Steve paused for a few minutes, breathing in the fading smell of Casey's perfume and grounding himself once more.

"When I'm here with you, I feel like... we've already been through a lot to get here. I've already come close to losing you, when Loki... and I can't help but feel like something is going to happen eventually that takes you away for good. That guy from the theatre I mentioned... at first it was petty insecurity, left over from the time when I couldn't dance with a woman without an inhaler." Steve chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"But then I thought of the rest of it. Erskine, Bucky, losing seventy years in what felt like just a day- everyone I knew, just, _gone_. Then when everything went to hell again, and Coulson died. I just worry that you're next. I worry that I'll lose you. Lose this." Steve put his hands on her silk-covered thighs and waited for her response.

It took a few minutes of tense silence. Steve waited calmly, face still tucked over her shoulder, a half embrace, waiting for her to freak out, laugh nervously, tease him- _anything._

"Steve, I want you to listen to me very carefully." her voice was too even and Steve pulled back to see her expression.

She looked like she was on fire. That was the only way Steve could explain it; her eyes looked slightly moist but were so intense as they looked at him that he thought they could split atoms.

"Erskine, Bucky, the plane, Peggy, Coulson, hell- _Loki_ , none of that, _none_ of that is on you." Steve wanted to scoff and protest, and Casey could clearly see this because she pressed a finger firmly against his mouth, eyes narrowing slightly.

"You did everything you could, what you felt was right. They were all people who respected you- well, except Loki, but you know what I mean..." Steve felt a rush of relief at the small stumble. It was a sign of the emotionally uncomfortable Casey that Steve knew and loved. "My point is, they respected you, and they all knew you'd have jumped in front of a bullet for them. That is if you couldn't send it straight back to the bad guys first." she smiled a little.

"You have lost a lot, more than anyone should have to. But you can't take responsibility for everyone, or everything. You can't live in fear of losing anything more, otherwise... otherwise you may as well still be frozen in that ice." her gentle, solemn expression took away any potential hurt from that statement. "Because that's no way to live. And definitely not with our profession." she smiled more surely now.

"Besides, don't you think I worry about you too? I'm with a guy who has the biggest, non-egotistical hero complex ever, and is completely selfless to the point of self-sacrificing insanity."

Steve gaped at her, rendered speechless, and not for the first time.

"I don't-" Casey raised an eyebrow at him, amusedly, daring him to argue. "So I like to help people... I take care of myself..." Steve grumbled and Casey laughed lightly.

"Steve, you're an incredible man. And you're an even more incredible person. There's so much goodness in you I don't know how it all fits in, even with all six feet of you." Steve relaxed at the return of their teasing.

"I don't want to worry you." he said carefully.

"C'mon, the whole team worries about each other- even Natasha, though she tried to hide it. It's what family does."

_It's what family does._

_Family._

Steve rolled the word around in his mind and felt himself smiling fondly as the memory of a movie night a couple of weeks ago surfaced. Everyone, even Thor, had been there, and it had been a special kind of mayhem. Chinese dishes were passed around and doled onto plates while everyone was having various conversations, shouting over each other to be heard. Thor was announcing his immense approval for Orange Chicken to the whole room. Tony and Sam had been debating which sauce was better- Sweet and Sour or Curry- and Clint was watching and throwing in comments for both sides just to rile the men back up again. Natasha watched Clint in turn, an expression of fond exasperation on her face, talking quietly to Bruce about something at the other end of the sofa.

The best part of that memory though, was the way Steve was sat in a chair that had a good view of the madness, and Casey was sat on the floor, leaning against his legs, laughing when Sam finally threatened to chuck Sweet and Sour sauce over Tony if he didn't just 'admit he was outnumbered in his love for Curry sauce and eat his damn food already'.

He may have lost the family he was born with, even the one he'd formed in the war, and it sure as hell still stung him most days, but he was lucky enough to have been gifted another- unconventional, but loyal.

That was when he suddenly understood what Casey was saying. The fear of losing any of them is understandable in Steve, what with his history, but at least he _has_ something to lose. He thought he remembered a saying or something like that from his early school days but struggled to grasp the faded memory.

"'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." Casey offered quietly, and the memory suddenly came rushing back- a shy, youngish, female English teacher trying to get a bunch of rowdy kids interested in English literature.

He smiled and looked up at Casey, frustrated when he saw the apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry," she started, "you were thinking quite loudly. And you're still touching me, so I-"

"You don't have to apologise." Steve said flintily. "Not with me. You know I trust you."

"Yeah, I know, it's just..." she trailed off but Steve knew well enough what she meant. It was just habit. The thought of how long Casey had been made to feel ashamed and evil for what she couldn't control never failed to anger Steve.

Steve felt emboldened, finally feeling at ease with his worries, and wanting to bury it in his mind for good beneath the love he had for his patchwork-quilt of a family, especially Casey.

She was still in that dress after all.

"Why don't you see what I'm thinking of now." Steve suggested mildly, feigning casualness.

"Okay..." Casey's expression barely shifted, just a slight tightening at the corner of her eyes. Then they widened and she laughed delighted, but shocked.

"Steven Rogers, I'm beginning to think you're not so much a gentleman as a rogue." she finished the put-on, airy-voiced statement with a dramatic hand to the forehead, and she's so far from a fainting damsel that Steve couldn't help but laugh.

"Well I find that some situations are better suited for a rogue than a gentleman."

Casey laughed once more, surprised, and Steve was pleased to notice her heart beating more rapidly beneath her chest.

"Better put your thoughts in action then, otherwise I'm going to have to start without you." she said simply and Steve watched, floored a little at the mental image _that_ conjured, as Casey pushed him away enough to jump down from the counter and walk out slowly in the direction of the stairs. She looked back at him once to make sure he noticed her unzipping the back of the dress, but he only got a glimpse of the pale skin before she disappeared round the corner.

Steve stood and just blinked as sparks of arousal returned to him, zipping about his entire body. He was half tempted to see if Casey really would carry out her threat of 'starting without him'- Steve shivered pleasantly- but his hindbrain spat out curses at that idea, and had him walking briskly to their bedroom.

He is only human after all.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo.... there was more angst in here than intended. It wasn't my fault- it was the Feels monster. He was in a bad mood.


End file.
